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Grow your own GARLIC

Home-grown garlic tastes delicious and with many different varieties to grow it means you can experience a wider taste range than you would get with supermarket garlic. Emma Rawlings offers some tips on planting garlic now on your plot

Emma Rawlings

Garlic has been grown for centuries and has long been known for its healing powers. In Ancient Egypt garlic was renowned for its health-promoting properties and this has only strengthened as science has proved a lot of these claims. Growing your own may seem unnecessary when you can buy bulbs very cheaply in the supermarkets but home grown has a far superior taste.

BUYING GARLIC

It is best to buy garlic bulbs from reputable seed merchants rather than trying to grow supermarket-bought bulbs. Some people have had success growing these but there is a good chance the varieties of these are better suited to continental climes. The garlic sold by seed merchants here is tried and tested and developed for our climate so you stand a much better chance of success with it.

WHEN TO PLANT

Garlic can be planted from September to early spring (about March) but autumn planting is often best with October and November being peak times for garlic planting. Some varieties are best planted earlier, some later, so check planting times when buying. It is a crop to experiment with because some gardeners don’t always find it an easy crop to grow and this is down to many reasons, including the aspect of your garden, the soil or disease in the soil such as white rot. All is not lost if you do struggle to grow it in your plot because garlic can be grown in containers too (see page 56).